Thumbelina Fashion Editorial Spread

[carneaglariel]

I was planning on doing a birthday post along with this one but this one became so image heavy already so I think I'll separate it.

A few months ago, I was approached during Pizzafolio (its an event where students of all majors share their portfolios so we see people we NEVER usually see at any given time) by extremely talented photographer YiFei Gu

Comments

[carneaglariel]

Thanks so very much dear <3 Actually, I think I work rather slowly actually. I struggled with the first few because I was so unused to the blending and flow in Photoshop. That took up a great deal of time on the first day.

Ah yeah, I notice that going from values to colours is something that gets really annoying but I found a way which worked for me to somewhat overcome that problem.

I generally paint in values first because there is a saying, that your painting may not have the most brilliant colours, but if your values are rock solid, showing depth and focus and how it works in the overall composition, colours are just the icing on the cake. This doesn't work for every single artwork but it helps a great deal when it comes to focus that's for sure. its a good way to make sure you don't run away with just using colours and in turn making everything look overly messy or splotchy.

I also notice that if I get something quite finished in terms of value rendering, it makes the implementation of colours a lot easier too. There seems to be less to worry about and you feel more focused as well.

Once I get the values settled; with some pieces I render it to almost 80% to 90% in full detail at this stage while others a little less, I put an overlay layer and start pushing in base colours. Usually I make a few colour compositions. Usually this gets RIDICULOUSLY vibrant hues, almost unnatural if I say so myself. So at times I put another multiply layer over it and put in colours that tone it down where I want it toned down. Multiply also allows me to put colours in the white areas unlike overlay. I tend to do some rendering of midtones in Multiply as well. If I can manage it I do some high key tones in that layer as well.

I put a normal layer over it then and do the final touches and clean it up thoroughly on this layer. I tend to switch between using each layer till I get the effect I want. Varies greatly from each artwork. Like with the first artwork, being very high key, most of my work was in the overlay and multiply layer and minimally in the normal layer. In the ones like Seeking Solace and Last Days of Light, there was a lot more work on the normal layer and multiply layer.

Hope that helped : D

[firnheledien]

I find values easier to do because I started working with pencils first.

I should try mixing overlay with multiply layers because just overlay has this burn and dodge look which I don't really like.

[carneaglariel]

Yeah the same concept works with pencils too : D

Usually if I want to avoid the burn dodge thing I usually put the overlay layer above the multiply but under the normal. It usually works best to kick in the saturation where you need it without it being massively overpowering. : D